Just a week before Typhoon Saola hit Japan on Oct. 28, Typhoon Lan hit Japan with record rainfall and wind gusts. Japan has already suffered from 22 typhoons this typhoon season, two being in the same week. Even though Japan is affected by these regularly occurring storms, recently, they have been hit after hit, some in major cities where there is a greater population.

Typhoon Lan started very strong in the Pacific Ocean but then lowered to a category two by the time it reached Japan. It then dumped 35 inches of rainfall in some places. Over 800 flights were cancelled over the weekend of Oct. 20, trains got stuck overnight, and ferries were cancelled. At least seven people died and about 100 injured due to various mudslides and floods that affected many citizens of Japan, including those in Tokyo. Also going on at the time was voting for the House of Representatives election, which caused some chaos during that weekend. The counting of ballots had to be delayed until the ballots could be delivered.

The very next Friday, Oct. 27, emergency warnings went out that there was another typhoon on the way. Though it wasn’t as strong as Typhoon Lan, there were alerts of more heavy rainfall, mudslides and possible river flooding. It was also supposed to disturb events such as the Oita International Wheelchair Marathon. The storm was predicted to leave Japan by the evening on Sunday Oct. 29 though.

On average, Japan is affected by 26 typhoons during the storm season, which is usually from August to September. These storms bring very heavy rainfall, but Japan has thought of methods to try and stop this heavy water flow during the last few years. One of these ideas was to build secret underground tunnels, these are supposed to do a better job of protecting locals in the worst parts hit by cyclones from massive flooding.

“We’re preparing for flooding beyond anything we’ve seen,” Kuniharu Abe, the head of the underground site, said in a New York Times Article. “Until now, at least, we’ve been successful.”

Japan has already been very successful in their methods to stop people from getting harmed in the floods and landslides, and the death toll from these storms has decreased even over the last few years. Hopefully Japan can continue to invent more improved ways of preventing typhoons that will keep from people dying in the future from these regularly occurring storms.